Argg!

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.

January 3rd (part two)

On Wednesday, December 22nd I arrived back in Ta’u along with Leafa and her son Keith. We got home and I ended up hanging out with my guests all day. Mike and Mark, two volunteers at Samoana High School, came on the boat on Tuesday. They wanted to arrive cheaply. I couldn’t deal with eight hours of sea sickness so I decided to fly. Crystal met them on Tuesday and introduced them to the village. I wanted to show Mike and Mark Fitiuta the next day so I went to find out who would be driving to the airport. The scenic car ride is always an enjoyment. Leafa was going to pick up her niece and let me know she would bring us along.

On Thursday, Mike needed to go up to the school to use the Internet so around 9 we took the walk up to the high school. Mark and Crystal came up two hours later so that we could all jump in the truck when Leafa drove by. She told me around 11:30 she would be leaving for the airport. At noon we were still waiting around. We decided to walk out to the road and see if there were any cars going that way. A half an hour later I decided to show them Saunoa’s house. Saunoa has been away since Thanksgiving. When he called on Christmas I told him how much he was missed and about my guests. He was sad that he couldn’t be there to take them around the island. From the road I showed them all his gardens, stone structures, and signs and then we headed home. Since Saunoa doesn’t trust most of the people out here (probably since they once tried to burn his house down) he posted signs all over his property to stay away and he also set booby traps. The one booby trap he told me about was on the stairs leading up to his house. He cut the supports on one of the steps so that if you put pressure on it, it would break. When you fall through he put a strip of metal that is meant to cut off anything you have dangling between your legs. Not something you are going to want to mess with. I am afraid to even step into the grass on the road next to his house. While we were walking to Saunoa’s, Leafa drove by in her car and said, “sorry, I was running late.” I was pretty upset with her. She could have called and let me know. Also, the school is on the way to Fitiuta, you would stop for no more than a minute and we would jump into the truck bed. The volunteers on the main island don’t have good experiences with Samoans being friendly to them. I wanted to show that Leafa was nice, but that didn’t work out so well.

Once we came home and ate some lunch I showed them my secret spot in front of the house. We climbed through the woods and climbed rocks in the front. For about 45 minutes, we just sat and chatted. After combing the beach for a bit everyone wanted to go home to rest. Around 5:30 I decided to take them out on the rocks on the other end of the village. The spot is perfect for sun set. As we were sitting we saw a sea turtle!! Minutes before that Mike threw a coconut into the water and we later saw the sea turtle swimming alongside it! Are adventures quickly ended as we saw the rain cloud coming over the mountain. We ran along the rocks and then all the way home. That night, Mike and Mark took out a card game, “Phase 10.” They invited Doug over and Doug, Crystal, Mike, Mark, and I played a good hour of Phase 10. Doug ended up ruining the game for us. The first three rounds he wouldn’t hold the cards in his hand and then he repeatedly asked questions. Just frustrating. We decided we were miserable and ended the game pretty quickly. Crystal’s boyfriend, Spanky, decided to come over our house with two other guys from the village all drunk. We all sat outside for a while chatting and just hanging out. Eventually everyone decided to head home.

Friday = Christmas Eve! Since we had yet to visit Fitiuta, we decided to walk the entire way. Crystal and I had only done it once before and thought it would be a good experience for them. We used the short cut for the beginning so that the walk wouldn’t take all day. I was in front leading them up the steep climb. While up ahead a bit I was looking down trying not to fall. I look up and WHACK! Right in the middle of the forehead! A branch sticking straight at me knocked me out. I brushed it off and continued the climb. Once at the top I told everyone what happened. They told me it didn’t look bad. While walking we ran into Tautua who asked Crystal what happened to me. It was then that I realized I looked pretty sad. For the rest of the week I was referred to as Harry Potter.

Mike and Mark aren’t very good preparing for hikes and were quite hungry by the time we arrived in Fitiuta. The walk takes about three hours so it takes a lot out of you when the sun is shining. We ended up hitching a ride home so that we had enough time to prepare for church that evening. We were able to find a ride a lot sooner than we thought and were able to jump in the ocean while at home. For about an hour we snorkeled around the shallow part looking at the reef. Mark and Mike were the first to find an octopus! We eventually saw two octopuses on the swim. I had never noticed them before but that was more due to not realizing that they go hiding and are purple! Now I am on the lookout for some purple octopus!

Church wasn’t too exciting on Christmas Eve. An hour of not knowing anything that was going on. There weren’t any Christmasy songs! Instead, there were some very ghetto decorations. There were pink and white balloons, flashing Christmas lights hanging all around, a fake tree in the front with blinking lights that were off sequence the entire night, and a sheet spray painted with “Manuia le Kerisimasi ma le Tousaga Fou” (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year). After church I was told to wait around for dinner. For the half an hour of waiting everyone wanted to know why I had the shape of a hook carved into my forehead. I kept to my story that I was attacked by a bear. :-) After I was given chocolate cake, hard boiled eggs, and muffins I decided to go home. Mike and Mark didn’t go to church so I felt bad leaving them. That night, Mike and Mark made Crystal and I breakfast for dinner: some eggs, pancakes, and potatoes. They went out and bought some beer and we just hung out for the night.

Saturday morning I was woken up at 3 AM by my lovely sister! I woke back up at 8 and opened my presents very slowly. I didn’t have too many and I wanted to savor the moment! I didn’t realize that the keychain my mom sent actually had photos on it which made it that much better a few days later! It is tradition at home to have cinnamon buns on Christmas Day so I made some from scratch! They were no Pillsbury cinnamon buns! I guess it was the idea that counts…I spent the rest of the morning baking some chocolate chip cookies and made plates for Trish and Tautua and Leafa. I also gave my neighbors a photo album I bought on Snapfish of their mother’s funeral. It was a very sad Christmas in Manu’a. No one really did anything. Santa didn’t come to anyone’s house. There was nothing to do! Mike, Mark, and I went and kicked a soccer ball around for a bit. When I was in Pago, I purchased a soccer ball to bring back. My neighbors loved playing and we ended up staying a couple of hours kicking it around.

Sunday seemed to not miss a beat. After church, Mike and I headed up to school for a bit. I organized some things for the SAT class I was teaching the next day and she did some research for school. Mike is in graduate school and has a paper due very shortly. While heading home, we called Mark to meet us in Ta’u. I wanted to show them how nice the beach is over there. We combed the beach for a bit, grabbed some shells, and headed home. We got home to find that Holly and Josh had arrived on the plane that day!! Now there would be five people living at our house! The night was spent catching up with everyone. I ended up escaping for a bit to get away from it all.

On Monday, I had my first SAT tutorial at 8 AM. I walked up to be greeted by the four students that showed up. Trish and I were going to split the group in two but ended up just keeping the four together. I had the first hour and then spent the second hour catching up with family. Mike, Mark, and Crystal walked up to school around 10 and we hitched a ride with Tautua over to Fitiuta. Tautua dropped us off at the airport and then we walked the rest of the village to get to the National Park. We ended up doing quite a bit of walking that afternoon. Thankfully we happened to miss the intense amount of rain fall that fell every couple of hours. When we started heading home, we stopped at the airport to refill our water bottles. We ended up staying there for a half an hour waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually we were able to continue looking for a ride home. We walked for an entire hour before a single car drove by. For the hike we walked a total of five hours! And that doesn’t include the 40 minute walk I took to school that morning! As we were heading home we saw that the activities were still going on at the church in Ta’u so Crystal and I jumped out and Mike and Mark headed home.

For the second week of Christmas break there was supposed to be a huge basketball and volleyball competition between each of the villages on my island and Ofu and Olosega. The ocean was very rough and Ofu and Olosega ended up not coming over. On Monday, each village was performing skits at the church as a start to the week of games. Crystal and I caught our village performance which lasted over an hour! We were way too exhausted and left right after them. Since everyone else stayed at the church, we received no ride and walked home. Very exhausting day! On Tuesday Mike and Mark were leaving so I spent Monday night watching them pack.

Tuesday’s tutorial was canceled due to the villages having another ceremony at the Ta’u Hall all morning. That morning the rain wouldn’t stop. Crystal and I got drenched as we road in the back of the truck to Fitiuta to drop off Mike and Mark. We sad goodbye and drove home.

One more part to the story of Christmas Break and then I promise I am done!!

Love,
Gretchen